is this really love?
by free-willy-chan
Summary: Gin is a normal girl until her life takes a surprise twist when she meets naruto. She tags along with the blond and falls for a man she doesn't know and then he's gone. Gin becomes a kunoichi but what of the man she saw? ItachixOC.
1. running away

Hey guys! i'm new to this so i really don't know how my story's gonna look like when i post it cause it kinda looks crappy and unappealing when i look at it now in the preview. but oh well. be nice in your reviews cause i'm sensetive XD If you don't like oc i'm having a few fics coming out later when i'm more in the middle of this one so you can check those ones out. Disclaimer: I'm not sure if i have to do this but everyone else does so i don't own Naruto. Gin Haruko looked at herself in her apartment mirror. She had quite an average appearance, curly brown hair, pale colored skin, and a button nose. The only thing out of average about her face was her eyes, big, bright, and innocent green. Gin loved her eyes, they stood out, she only wished she had a body to match them. She was flat, back and front, giving her no sex appeal what so ever.

Gin thrived for boy's attention, but they would ignore her for the next bubblehead beauty to walk through the door. But that didn't bother Gin so much, although she thrived for their attention, Gin knew there was only one boy out there for her, she just hadn't met him yet. Gin wasn't a very talented girl either. The only talent she owned was one she was ashamed of. Gin was an excellent cook, but she thought of her talent as useless, not even a real talent. She wished to have a more flashy talent, such as singing or dancing.

One talent that she envied the most was to be a kunoichi. To be a kunoichi, was to be confident, beautiful, elegant, and strong. Things Gin always wished to be but could not. She had no affiliation with the ninja life what so ever. Gin didn't even know what a ninja was, being a simpleton all her life, until she was saved by one. Gin did not grow up in one of the military villages such as Konoha or Suna, isolating her from all the residents and traditions.

Although very opinionative, Gin never spoke her mind due to a shyness caused by low self of steam. The only people she could speak to freely were her little sister, Rini Haruko, and her aunt, Taka Haruko. Rini was 5 years of age, she was very loud and annoying and caused Gin to sometimes blow up in anger which never happened in public.

Taka Haruko was 38 years of age, she also had a very motherly affection towards Rini and Gin this was because the 2 had no parents.

Gin's parents had died 4 years ago when Rini was 1 so she didn't remember, but Gin was 10 at the time and she could never forget. It's not like their death was a big deal, like murder, it was just a simple sickness that killed them, the doctor said it was just food poisoning. Maybe their meat wasn't cooked right or something was expired in what they ate. Gin still remembered them as clear as day. Her mother, much like her aunt, was the type of lady men would beg to. She had curly light blond hair, flawless skin, and, although her eyes were blue, they were the same as Gin's, bright and laughing. When she smiled she had big dimples.

Her father was tall, strong and handsome, with green eyes, and short brown hair every bit of him belonged to her mother and she belonged to him. They had eyes for no one else, that was the type of love Gin wanted, needed. It looked so good, to be happy and in love.

"Gin-gin-chan!" yelled Rini.

Gin tore her gaze from her mirror to see her 5-year-old sister. Rini had straight shoulder length, dangly blond hair. She to had her mother's blue eyes, but with a hint of mischief. She had rosy pink cheeks and a rather cute lisp when she talked. She was already dressed in a pair of pink overalls with yellow flowers and a plain white t-shirt underneath while Gin still wore her nightclothes. "What is it Rini?" asked Gin, rather annoyed.

"Guess what!" she said.

"What!"

"Auntie Taka says she has a business twip tomowo and were all going to stay in a hotel!!" She squealed delightedly.

Gin sighed, she had school to worry about, but she had to agree, taking a break would be nice. "That's great Rini." She picked Rini up, "are you all packed?"

"Mmhm" she replied proudly.

"Well, I guess you're ahead of me," said Gin, poking Rini's nose playfully. "I'm just gonna get changed so you go in the kitchen and help auntie Taka with breakfast, k?"

"OK!" said Rini brightly.

Gin walked to her dresser and pulled out her most comfortable loose fit blue jeans and a long sleeved white shirt with a slight V-neck. It was a very casual laid back look for Gin, not in anyway like her personality, but if she were to travel all day she did not want to wear her usual nice clothing. She wanted to maybe cuddle up in a blanket; not worrying how crumpled up her clothes got.

Gin packed her bags with things she would wear in public. Gin liked her clothes and didn't care what people said about them. She tended to wear plain clothing, nothing extraordinary or very shape fitting. Once she finished packing her suitcase she went back to her mirror and put her hair in 2 low braids. She then went down the hall towards the kitchen to eat breakfast.

"Good morning aunt Taka," said Gin, taking in the fresh smell of breakfast.

"Take a seat and have some food," her aunt offered. "Rini is watching TV in the other room," she stated, knowing Gin couldn't stand eating with her little sister.

Aunt Taka, who was the sister of Gin's mother, was a drop dead gorgeous woman, even for her age. She was just as pretty as her sister although the two looked nothing alike. She had long black hair that was straight with only a hint of wave in it. Her eyes were green like Gin's but a little darker, they weren't as nice as Gin's, Rini's or her sisters because they lacked in brightness but they always had a kind twinkle to them. Her skin was light and flawless and she had a small beauty mark above her left cheek, something Gin always thought defined her more.

Gin wished she had a more defined look as well, instead of being plain. All around Gin, people were so much more beautiful than her, her aunt was like a sexy underwear model, her mom was like a carefree angel, and her sister who all the little boys had a crush on.

"Where are we going aunt Taka?" asked Gin, while stuffing her mouth with burnt toast.

"I don't really remember the name, but its near Suna," She replied.

Gin's heart skipped a beat; Suna was one of the military villages. This could be her chance to meet the handsome ninja of her dreams, who would protect her forever.

"You all packed?" said her aunt while doing the dishes.

"Yeah," replied Gin. "When are we leaving?" she asked, eager to leave now.

"About noon." She answered. "Kita and Yukio Hoshi are staying at the same hotel as us, I was talking to their mother."

Gin choked on her rice at this. Yukio and Kita went to the same school as Gin, and their mother worked with Gin's aunt. Yukio was the cutest boy in school and Gin's biggest crush. Kita was the prettiest girl in school and hated Gin with a passion ever since she grew boobs and a butt.

The 2 were twins and the most popular kids in school. Seeing as her aunt and their mother were friends, they saw each other often at parties, small get togethers and luncheons. Of course Gin was ignored unless someone else was in the room, these rendezvous made her feel almost invisible; but Gin still enjoyed seeing Yukio.

"Well that's good," said Gin.

"You'll get to see Yukio again, that should be good," said aunt Taka, smiling. She obviously didn't know how the Hoshi twins treated her.

"Yeah," Gin triggered a fake smile.

That afternoon was spent taking care of Rini while aunt Taka ran errands in town. Once her aunt returned they left immediately for the hotel and arrived at around 3:00 pm. The hotel was nice enough, the room had 2 beds and a washroom, TV, and living room set of couch and chairs. Gin threw her suitcase on the very first bed then plunked herself on the other.

"Well I'm gonna go see where Mrs. Hoshi is, maybe Yukio and Kita are around, if I see them, I'll tell them where you are." Announced aunt Taka.

"Um, OK,"

"Ooooh, Gin likes Yukio," yelled Rini.

"Rini!! Be quiet!"

"Well see yah!" Taka grinned.

"Hey Gin," came an obnoxious voice from the doorway. Gin turned to see Kita standing at the door. Her long black hair was pulled into a casual low ponytail, her sexy black eyes had a dark eye shadow on that made her look mysterious, and her perfectly tan skin almost radiating. She wore a blue jean mini skirt with a long sleeved orange shirt with a white flower pattern on the bottom right corner. She had a pair of black heals on that made her legs look much longer much to Gin's dismay.

"Hello," Gin bowed her head.

"My mother made me come here, she probably feels bad for you." She drawled on. "Yukio should be here soon, you should be happy."

Gin blushed. "Gin loves Yukio," said Rini a little too loud for comfort. Gin wanted to die.

"Hahaha," laughed Kita. "You are so cute Rini," she giggled.

"Hey," said the unmistakable voice of Yukio. Gin looked almost immediately towards the door. Yukio looked the opposite of his sister. He had short, messy brown hair and pale blue eyes and a nice tint of brown to his skin. "Yukio-chan!!" yelled Rini.

"Hahahaha, it's Yukio-kun, Rini. You just called my brother a girl." Laughed Kita.

Yukio crossed the room towards Rini and gave her a small poke on the forehead playfully, Rini blushed. The Hoshi twins loved Rini because she was so cute and innocent. Gin couldn't blame them, even if Rini was a little annoying, Gin loved her sister and her troublesome personality.

The next hour the Hoshi twins spent the time playing with Rini, watching TV, and talking about things or people she had never heard of before. Gin hadn't spoken a single word the whole time and decided to leave for a little walk to rid her of the uncomfortable feeling.

As she walked down the hall mostly watching her feet, thinking about earlier events she collided with something hard. Gin fell flat on her butt.

"AAAAHHH!!!" came a yell.

"Sorry!" apologized Gin she looked up to see a boy about 1 or 2 years younger than herself. He had spiky blond hair, big blue eyes, his cheeks each had 3 weird marks on them, and he wore an odd headband with the symbol of a snail-like thing. He immediately got up and lent her a hand.

"Sorry," he grinned nervously once she was up. "I wasn't paying attention, I guess I was a little mad about my sensei leaving me for a stupid woman." He began to go off into his own angry thoughts.

"Sensei?" She asked curiously.

"Yeah, you know, like a teacher. He's supposed to be _teaching _me a new jutsu, but he's to busy being perverted." He replied.

"What's a jutsu?" She asked. '_What is this guy going on about?'_ she thought.

"You don't know what a jutsu is?!" He asked incredulously.

"Um, should I?" asked Gin, feeling unsure of herself.

"Well, I don't know," Gin, thought he looked rather stupid at the moment as he looked like he was trying to think very hard.

"Can you tell me what it is?" she asked rather eagerly, for some reason, Gin wasn't acting very shy.

"SURE!!!!" he said enthusiastically. "By the way, I'm Naruto Uzumaki." He added.

"I'm Gin Haruko," she smiled and they shook hands.

"You wanna go to my hotel room and talk?" he offered.

"Sure," she replied.

"So, how old are you?" he asked as they headed down the hall.

"Um, 14, turning 15 in 2 months," she replied.

"Really? I thought you were my age, like 12 or something," he said.

"Most people think that about me," she said.

"I think this is my room," Naruto changed the subject. He opened the door and let her in. The room looked exactly like hers but flipped around because it was on the other side of the hall as hers; this for some reason annoyed Gin, it was like entering the mirror world.

"So what's a jutsu?" she asked, sitting on one of the chairs by the balcony.

"Um… Well… It's… Let me show you one instead," he said.

_'Show me?'_ thought Gin, a little confused. "Uhm, OK."

Naruto stood in the middle of the room. He bent his knees into a squatting position, closed his eyes as if concentrating hard, and made weird signs with his hands. Gin thought he looked rather constipated, but she didn't say anything.

"Kage no Bunshin!(spell?)" he yelled, almost making her pee her pants.

Gin closed her eyes and when she opened them, a gasp escaped her lips because there standing right in front of her was 3 Narutos.

"Oh my gosh! You must be a ninja! But I still never knew anyone could ever do that!" Gin was almost ecstatic right now.

"Really? Lot's of ninja can do that," he said it as if it were no big deal.

"Wow, are you kidding me? I thought that ninjas just did karate and stuff like that!" she said.

"No," he said as the clone on the left and the clone on the right disappeared in a poof of smoke.

"So are there other jutsus out there?" she asked, now used to the fact that someone just cloned themselves in the blink of an eye. Well as used to the fact as you could possibly get.

"Well ya, there's probably millions of them," he said, "and there's different types." He said.

"Really? What are they?" she asked.

"Well, there are ninjutsus which are very powerful and used for fighting. Genjutsus, used for creating elusion and ninjutsu, like kicking and punching stuff.

For about an hour the 2 talked and talked. Gin had learned almost everything about the shinobi world, Naruto's friends such as Sakura, his crush, Sasuke, his rival etc… But the thing that interested her the most for some odd reason, was the mention of medical nins. For some reason, having the power to heal was rather appealing to her. Maybe if Gin had been a Medical nin, she could have saved her parents. This made her wonder if a girl like her could actually become a medical nin.

'_knock, knock'_

The 2 looked at the door.

"Ha. That old pervert probably got dumped 5 seconds in," he said. Gin giggled, Naruto was very funny.

Naruto walked to the door and opened it. Gin couldn't hear a thing or see from the angle that she was at. She was very anxious to meet one of the legendary sanin so she got up and went to the door. The first thing she saw was Naruto who stood there completely awestruck for some reason. Gin raised an eyebrow in confusion. She then heard a calm yet cold voice.

"Naruto-kun, you are to come with us," it said. For some reason, Gin knew this wasn't the great Jiraya sama. She turned her gaze towards the door where she beheld a sight that made her gasp. It was a man only about 2 or 3 years older than she. Everything about him was flawless. He was tall, dark, handsome, and most of all mysterious.

At the same time this frightened her, something about him made her shiver. His pale skin was flawless, his long black hair shone, but the thing that intrigued Gin the most about this man, was his eyes. His eyes were red, an odd color, but they seemed to complement his black hair. If possible they were at least 100 times more captivating and radiant than her own, and were somewhat hypnotizing. It was almost painful to gaze into them for to long but she could not tear her eyes off of his own; was this love at first sight? If it was, then Gin wanted love right now. It felt timid, scary and odd but at the same time it felt so many more things, exotic, new, right, and gave her adrenalin rush the ride of a lifetime.

"We should just cut off his legs so he doesn't run away, it's not like we need that part anyways," Gin heard a rough voice behind the man. It was obvious to her that they were up to no good and this was about Naruto.

"Step out of the room," said the red eyed man.

Naruto took a shaky step forward into the hallway, Gin followed.

"What about the other?" Gin looked at the man with the rough voice. She had to stifle a small giggle, for some reason she found his appearance odd and funny. He was blue and had the appearance of a shark. He even had gills.

"Leave her, she is of no importance," said that red-eyed man. Those words hurt Gin, but she knew they were true.

"Now let's leave," he said but stopped in his tracks instantly It was apparent that he noticed something. "Long time no see… Sasuke-kun."

Naruto and Gin both gasped. Gin knew of the Uchiha he was Naruto's rival and she was curious to meet him. She turned to see a boy the age of Naruto's with an almost death glare upon his face. She had to admit he was fairly cute and she realized why Sakura and every other girl would be infatuated with him. He looked like the mini version of the red-eyed man except his eyes were less feminine and were not captivating at all compared to the taller man.

"I am going to kill you," he yelled.

"Who is this Itachi?" asked the fishman.

"My younger brother," he replied.

Suddenly Sasuke charged for the man Gin assumed to be Itachi, but his left arm seemed to have an electric current coming from it. _'Amazing' _thought Gin. The arm left a large dent in the wall as he ran, showing how powerful it really was.

Gin knew that the red-eyed man would die and for some reason wanted to save him, but she couldn't budge. She closed her eyes not wanting to see the impact when 'BANG'.

Gin opened her eyes, she didn't want the man to die, no matter how mean he was. But instead of his lifeless body on the floor she saw the 2 boys, eye to eye the younger boys hand held up by the others. _'Wow, he must be way more powerful than I thought,' _ Gin thought, for some reason proudly, that this man was so strong as to be able to block such an attack.

"You are in my way right now," said Itachi to Sasuke.

Gin looked towards Naruto who was in the same position as he was when he made his shadow clones, but he seemed to be concentrating harder. Seconds later a red aura produced itself around his body. Gin could feel the power radiating off of him. The fishman suddenly brought down a huge ugly sword and the red aura was gone

"Too late," he grinned wickedly as he was about to slash Naruto to bits when a giant toad blocked him.

A tall man with long white hair and a pretty woman slung over his back. He then began a long speech of how he was the great sexy Jiraya sama and how any woman would fall for him. He then went on to say.

"You 2 will die by my hand!"

"Don't do it," came Sasuke. "He's mine."

Jiraya seemed to have an understanding look in his eyes and didn't say anything.

"You do not interest me at this moment Sasuke," Itachi seemed a little irritated, he then kicked his brother in the stomach sending him flying into the wall. He bent down, picked up Sasuke by the neck and pinned him against the wall, whispering some undecipherable words, then Sasuke began to scream.

It was almost unbearable to watch. Suddenly Jiraya made some hand seals and the entire hall turned into a mouth. _'Could my day get any weirder?' _Fishman and Itachi made a quick dash down the hallway and out of sight and just like that _he_ was gone.

Gin suddenly had an empty feeling and it was then that she realized that it really _was_ love at first sight. She hadn't even spoken to him yet and now he was gone. Crazy how in 1 hour your life could change, in 1 hour discover a whole new world and in one hour find love and then lose it just as easily.

After their departure, an odd man with a black bowl haircut and caterpillars for eyebrows, came and took Sasuke back to Konoha. He mentioned to Naruto and Jiraya about finding a lady named Tsunade who could probably heal Sasuke. This caught Gin's attention. _'This woman must be a medical nin' _that was what Gin wanted to be.

To be a medical nin, somewhat appealed to Gin. As soon as the odd man departed Gin's confidence soared and she asked."May I meet this Tsunade sama as well?" seconds past and Gin could feel her face going red. She hadn't even spoken to Jiraya before, and to come up with such a bold question… And what if he said no?

"Please perverted hermit!! Please, please," begged Naruto. Gin felt very flattered by his actions.

Jiraya thought long and hard. "Fine." Was his simple answer.

Gin's face lit up, Naruto jumped for joy, but a sinking thought entered her mind. '_Aunt Taka.'_

Gin didn't tell Naruto nor Jiraya that she had an aunt that would possibly not allow her to go, that would be so embarrassing. Instead when she went to her room to pack she hunted down her aunt to ask the faithful question.

"Can I go?" she asked.

"Go Where?" asked her aunt, the 2 wre in the hotel room alone, Rini was in the Hoshi twins room.

"The trip of a lifetime. This trip aunt Taka will change my life and I will become a better person." Gin thought selling the idea was better than telling the details right away, that way Aunt Taka might reconsider before saying no.

"Ya, but where are you going and for how long, and did you say a trip? When you said can I go I thought it was, like, just to the market place." She said

"Um, well you see… There is this famous healer who has incredible wisdom that I could maybe even rub off on, but only if I meet her. But she's kinda far away but you see aunt Taka this is the kind of life I want, really want." She went on.

"What do you mean, what kind of life do you want Gin?" asked Taka.

"The life of a ninja, aunt Taka! It's always been my dream! I want to learn more about them! Pleeeeeaase aunt Taka. I promise to come back, just give me this chance. I want to meet knew people, branch out, find love. I'm almost 15. Most 15 year olds are independent and on their own. I know for a fact that my father lived on his own at the age of 12 after his parents died and he turned out fine. Please I want to go on an adventure, this is my chance." Gin knew her aunt would say no, so she made a speech to make her feel at least a little guilty about it.

"Who are you going with?" At least it wasn't a no.

"A man and a boy I met. You can meet them if that helps.?" Said Gin hopefully.

"OK, I'll make a deal with you." Taka proposed. Gin lit up. "If these people are decent then you can go. But if I don't trust them, no."

"OK!"

Gin took her aunt to Naruto's room and knocked on the door. The door opened.

"Hey Naruto!" said Gin upon seeing the blond.

"H-h-h…" Naruto froze once he noticed Taka at the door.

Aunt Taka smiled. "Hello," she said politely. "I heard my niece is leaving with you?" she asked.

Jiraya then came to the door, upon also seeing Taka he had an instant nosebleed then started giggling to himself. Naruto was knocked back into his senses. He turned around and bonked his sensei on the head.

"CAN'T YOU STOP GOGGLING OVER BEAUTIFUL WOMEN YOU PERVERT!!!!!" he yelled. Gin and her aunt just stood there. Great, she was definitely going now.

"Awwww, Naruto, why do you have to call me that in public?" Jiraya blushed.

Naruto turned back to Gin and her aunt. "Nice to meet you," he smiled. "So you're Gin's aunt?"

"Yes," she smiled back. "I was just stopping by to meet you before Gin left." She said. _'does that mean I'm going?' _thought Gin hopefully. "I'm just going to help her pack now." Gin lightened at these words. Did that mean… "Come with me Gin."

Gin and Taka were now in their own hotel room. "Well…" Said aunt Taka.

"What?" asked.

"Get packed!" She said smiling. Gin squealed and gave her aunt a tight hug.

"Thank you!"

"But say goodbye to your sister." Added aunt Taka.

"Of course!" said Gin heading to the Hoshi twins room.

Knock, knock

The door opened to reveal Yukio.

"Um… Sorry… I-is Rini h-here," she stared at the carpet.

"Yah, RINI!!" He turned to call Rini.

"YES!" Gin could hear her sisters voice in the back of the room.

"IT'S GIN!" he yelled.

"YAAAAAY!!!" Rini came scampering over to the door then pounced on Gin's leg.

"Rini I have to talk to you over there, OK?" said Gin pointing towards an area where the Hoshi twins wouldn't over hear them.

"OK."

They walked down the hall and Gin kneeled down in front of her sister.

"Rini, I'm going away for a while so I won't see you in a long time." Said Gin calmly.

"Why?"

"Well you see, I'm old enough now Rini, to do what I want with my life, and some day you will be too." She said, knowing it was a matter of time before her sister would cry.

"How long" she asked.

"Well I don't know, but I promise I'll come back," Gin promised.

"Why can't I come?" Rini began to pout.

Gin smiled. "Because you're to young."

"B-but I don't want you to leave!" tears began to form in the corners of her eyes.

"Rini I promise to see you but for now you have to be good for aunt Taka, OK?"

"O-OK."

The 2 hugged for several minutes and then parted, then after a little while, Gin was off on her new adventure with Naruto and Jiraya.


	2. new life

A New Life

HOLY CRAP YOU HAVE TO READ THIS!!!

K now that I have your attention the last chapter I messed up the beginning. So if you don't read these things then go back to the last chapter cause the first paragraph is attached to the A/N. P.S. Itachi is not in this chapter, sorry .

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

It was a beautiful day with the sun rising over the horizon. Gin kicked at an ant hole on the ground not thinking much of the residents there. It was 6:30 am and she was exhausted. Jiraya, Tsunade and Shizune insisted that they rise early, that way they'd arrive in konoha early. Gin thought it was just a load of bull. Naruto's loud, complaining voice was just the cherry on top.

"Are we almost there yet?" yelled the annoying blond.

"NO!!" yelled all four in unison.

As they walked down the endless road for what seemed like hours but was only minutes, in silence, Gin's delightful mood improved. As she was greatly annoyed she decided to break the silence.

"Tsunade?"

"Mhhmm?" she answered.

"What's Konoha like anyways?" Gin was very curious about this.

Tsunade was very surprised by this, for some reason the girl was very excited to visit Konoha. Tsunade had taken a liking to Gin. She was very nice but at sometimes she could be very timid around others. She had no talents so far as a kunoichi or she hadn't seen any yet. What Tsunade didn't know was that Gin wasn't a kunoichi at all.

"Why are you so excited to see Konoha anyways?" asked Tsunade.

"Well you see… Naruto, and every body here are pretty much the only ninja I've ever met in my life, and Konoha is a village full of ninja and it's just exiting to me." She responded.

Tsunade was surprised; Jiraya, Shizune and Naruto were up ahead arguing about something random so they didn't really notice anything.

"So you mean you're not a kunoichi?" asked Tsunade.

"No, but it's always been my dream to be." Said Gin. "When we met with Orochimaru I was absolutely awestruck. I never knew it was humanly possible to do all that stuff. Those animals you summoned were awesome, and the way you used your healing powers was the best part in my opinion. To be able to heal like you would be great." She said.

"Would you like to learn?" asked Tsunade.

"Yeah, that's one of the reasons I really want to go to Konoha. Maybe I could learn something, you know?" she said. "That's another reason why going is so exiting," she said.

"Well that settles it," said Tsunade.

"Settles what?" asked Gin.

"You're my new apprentice," she declared happily.

"What?" asked Gin, she had heard Tsunade loud and clear but just wanted to hear it again.

"You know? I'm going to teach you all that I know," she grinned.

Gin's young face lit up, " thank you so much!" she squealed.

Tsunade was surprised to feel something around her waste. She looked down to see Gin and smiled to herself.

Gin let go, "you really don't realize how much this means to me," she couldn't be more thankful.

"Well, how about we talk a bit more about Konoha for a while then," she suggested.

As the two talked, Gin grinned from ear to ear taking in every detail of Konoha, her eyes shining with anticipation. Her earlier grumpy mood completely erased.

About a half an hour later the group of five stopped to take a short lunch break at a small restaurant. Gin ordered the yakitori and kare raisu, Shizune ordered tonkatsu, Jiraya ordered fried gyoza Tsunade ordered nikujaga (and a sake), and Naruto ordered ramen.

"Good news," announced Shizune to Gin.

"What?" she asked.

"Were only a half an hour away from Konoha," she said.

"Thank god. My feet are killing me," rejoiced Gin.

"More sake please," Tsunade called the waiter. Shizune glared at the woman and Gin sweatdropped.

"Naruto, I can't wait to meat Sakura and everyone else," Gin decided to change the subject. "Tell me more about them," she asked.

And Naruto went on talking about his friends leaving Gin bored to tears because he mostly repeated stuff he'd already said about them.

Finally everyone finished his or her dinner paid and left for Konoha.

"So Tsunade sama, you're going to be hokage of Konoha?" asked Gin curiously. Naruto looked their way with a frown on his face. He was probably still angry he wasn't going to be hokage.

"Yes," she answered.

"That's cool," she grinned. Lately Gin wasn't shy around these people. Maybe it was a sign that she belonged to this world. She was more comfortable in this place than anywhere else.

As she walked, Gin could see a huge gate, form ahead. Her heart skipped a beat as she broke into a run and Naruto joined her. Laughing and skipping they finally made it with the others far behind them. Two large men in armor stopped them.

"Stop, what is your business here," one of them demanded.

"Umm… were going to Konoha," answered Gin timidly.

"Who are you?" the other asked.

"Um, I'm Gin Haruko," She answered.

"And I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" answered Naruto enthusiastically.

The next moment Jiraya, Tsunade, and Shizune caught up.

"Tsunade sama? Jiraya sama?" said the guard. "Please enter, we've been waiting," He bowed his head.

Gin giggled at his sudden change of persona. The large gates opened and Gin was the first to step in. Her bright eyes widened in fascination. It was just as Tsunade had described it, beautiful, friendly and somewhat charming and neighborly in Gin's opinion.

Gin jumped up and down. Everywhere there was market places, busy people, the landscaping looked so traditional and grand in her eyes. Up ahead Gin could see a large mountain with 4 faces carved into it. Gin felt like a giddy little schoolgirl. All in all it was a peaceful, happy village and Gin loved it.

"Come on! Come on! Tsunade! You have to go to the hospital to heal Sasuke, Kakashi, and Lee," yelled Naruto.

Gin's heart was filled with a new anticipation. She had heard of Kakashi and Lee and was itching to meat new people. Even though she already saw Sasuke she hadn't really met him either.

Naruto and Gin once again went running and skipping ahead of the group. Once they reached the hospital, Sasuke was the first one to get healed

Gin stood in a room full of people. Sasuke lay unconscious in a hospital bed with Tsunade hovering over him, a nurse and a doctor stood by the window, Naruto, Shizune and Gin were at the door and Jiraya was off somewhere else probably looking for women. The person who interested Gin the most in the room was a young girl with pink hair. She looked a lot like the girl Naruto described as Sakura, cute, bubbly and nice, and Gin assumed it was her.

"Is that girl Sakura, Naruto?" she whispered.

"Yah," he answered.

The next moment Sasuke was healed and the girl flung herself on top of the dazed boy. Naruto seemed to look hurt so he beckoned Tsunade to follow him.

The group followed Naruto to another room. The room was darker and in the middle was a bed with a man that had silver hair and a mask. Straight away Gin knew this was Kakashi. How many people wore a mask? He was rather handsome even hidden behind a mask she thought.

After being at the hospital, Tsunade had a lot of business to take care of. Seeing as Gin had nowhere to go, Naruto took her on a tour. First stop was Ichiraku Ramen.

"This is my favorite place," he announced, once they arrived. "And since we stopped by, how bout we have some ramen?" he asked.

Gin giggled, "sure."

Naruto reached his third ramen whilst Gin had only finished half of hers.

"So I'll show you all my other friends once were done!" he exclaimed.

Gin grinned eagerly.

"N-naruto," came a timid voice from behind.

"Hinata?" Naruto turned to see the hyuga.

"HEY!!!" he yelled, almost scaring the poor girl. Gin turned to see the new person, but there were two other people as well. One was a boy who had brown spiky hair and a dog and the other boy had short brown hair and dark sunglasses, the girl who had spoken called Hinata was very petite and had short black, blue hair and at the moment her face was beet red.

"Gin! These are my friends Hinata, Shino," he pointed to the boy with glasses, "and Kiba!" he pointed to the boy with the dog, which barked. "Oh yeah, and that's Akamaru." Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Hey, I'm Gin," she said.

"Hey," grinned Kiba.

"Hello," said Shino.

"Um… H-hi," Hinata stuttered, reminding Gin of her self only days ago but a more extreme version.

"What a cute dog," Gin smiled awkwardly. Akamaru barked loudly and she winced.

"Are you afraid?" asked Kiba.

"Uh… Umm, kinda," She felt very embarrassed. What would Kiba think of her now?

"It's alright, he won't hurt you, here," Kiba took Gin's hand and guided it towards Akamaru. Gin blushed hard. She closed her eyes, dreading contact but instead of sharp teeth, her skin met with soft fur. Gin opened her eyes and let out a surprised laugh. After a while she was really at ease.

"Wow! All my life I've been kind of squeamish around dogs, and now I'm not! Thanks!" she smiled.

"No problem! Besides, Akamaru really likes you," said Kiba. Akamaru barked happily. Gin's hand retreated and she smiled.

"So, are you guys ninja as well?" she asked.

"Yes," replied Shino.

"Cool! I'm going to be one to, soon," she said.

"R-really?" asked Hinata watching as Naruto gobbled down another bowl of ramen.

"Yah!"

"So how did you meet Naruto?" asked Kiba.

"Oh, that's a funny story," she said, remembering the incident at the hotel with Itachi. "Well, it all pretty much started when my aunt announced that she had a business trip." (A/N: Unless you want a recap of the last chapter, don't flame me for skipping forward. I guess you could call me a lazy writer cause I like to skip ahead on a lot of things.)

Gin sat in the hokage's office, which belonged to Tsunade even though she wasn't officially hokage yet. Tsunade sat behind the big desk hidden by enormous stacks of paper and countless bottles of sake.

"Gin, seeing as you have no place to live, you're going to have to live with me for now," she claimed.

"I'm sorry to be such a burden, Tsunade sama," Gin felt rather guilty.

"Nonsense, I'd be glad to," she smiled. "Besides, the house is huge, and, if you really don't want to be a burden you could maybe even help me with all this troublesome paper work."

Gin smiled. That statement made her feel better, she hated being a burden.

"And this will also be good for your training, as we will be together all the time and I do have a busy schedule." Tsunade went on.

Gin couldn't wait for her training. She almost wanted to squeal every time she thought of it.

"When will we begin training, Tsunade sama?" she asked.

"Today, after I've finished up with some important business," replied Tsunade. "Which will be about 2 hours or so, so don't wait up" she teased.

"Don't worry, I will," Gin joked.

"Now I have to show you your new room," said Tsunade.

The two made their way down an enormous, grand hallway with doors on every side. Gin loved the landscaping. It was like walking into old Japanese, one time zone to another. Of course the mansion still had electricity or Gin would have killed herself by now.

"Your room is in the east wing of the house, along with the guards, Shizune and Tonton," she said. "My room is in the west wing along with the other guards." She then added.

They both stopped at the end of the hall in front of the very last door.

"This is one of the sweets, there are 4 in total and me you and Shizune own them, the other one belongs to special guests, alright?" she asked.

"Mhhmm," replied Gin. She had never been in a mansion before and found it rather exiting to be living in one.

Tsunade opened the door and let Gin in. "I have to go now, but I'll be back soon." She then left.

Gin took a look at her new room. It was so big. It was three rooms in one. First there was the bathroom. Hidden by large sliding paper doors, was a large hot tub and a shower and what most bathrooms had. The bedroom was plainer with just a bed, side table and (what do you call those things that rich people used to change behind in the old days. Watch the first seen from the pirates of the Caribbean where Elizabeth changes into the really tight dress, and you'll know what I mean.). The other room was more of a beauty room, where there was a make up stand and a human sized mirror.

The room was very plain and reminded Gin of a traditional Japanese house, but what intrigued her was the closet. It was a huge walk in closet, nothing terribly special, except for the collection of gorgeous kimono her size. Gin felt as if she had died and gone to heaven. It was like a dream come true. Gin had to try one on now.

She picked out the first kimono on the rack. It was a dark greenish yellowish color and the pattern consisted of brown tree branches, white and pink flowers, and cranes.

The kimono was rather daring, it was a spring kimono that ended just past mid thigh. It was also fairly tight fitting and accentuated what little curve Gin owned to make her look like a slim hourglass. Gin tied a yellow obi sash to go with the yellow, green color and looked in the mirror. This look was much to different from her plain jeans and white T's and she felt rather uncomfortable in this show-offy attire so she changed back into her comfort clothes. She pulled out a long wavy, white, peasant skirt and a bleu spaghetti strap shirt. Then slipped on a pair of brown sandals, put away the kimono and sat on her bed.

Boredom overcame Gin and her family crossed her mind. '_Are they worried about me?' _she thought. Gin decided to wright a letter. She stood up and found paper and a pen.

_Dear aunt Taka and Rini-chan,_

_My life is so great right now. I'm living in a mansion with Tsunade sama, the leader of konoha the village. My new room is huge and I have a closet full of beautiful kimono._

_I've made a ton of new friends already and Tsunade is promising to train me to become a ninja!! You can only imagine how exited I feel right now._

_The people here are so nice to me, and I fit in with everyone. Konoha is such a gorgeous place you should come visit. If you want to see me, just ask for the Hokage and hopefully they'll show you my new house._

_Miss you. Love,_

_Gin___

Gin stuck the letter in an envelope and set it on her desk as another thought crossed her mind. _'Itachi…' _Gin needed to see him again, but all she knew of him was that his brother was Sasuke, and asking that person, didn't seem like a good idea. The next moment, Gin heard a knock at the door.

"Come in!" she called. Tsunade stepped in.

"I guess we should start training," she grinned.

Gin jumped up it had come earlier than expected!

Gin followed Tsunade towards the training grounds in the back yard, a question itching at her mind.

"Tsunade," she said.

"Mhhmm," she looked down at the girl.

"Do you know of an Itachi Uchiha?" she asked.

Tsunade stopped in her tracks. "Yes," she answered rather suspiciously. "Why?"

"Oh, it's just that I saw him when I was at the hotel with Naruto and I was just curious. Do you know anything about him?" she asked.

Tsunade's suspicions were erased. "Itachi Uchiha is a member of a terrorist group called the Akatsuki, I still don't know what their intentions are, but I know that it is no good, and that they are after Naruto and a few other innocent people," she said.

"Oh," said Gin.

Once they had reached the training grounds Tsunade stopped. "First, you must change into these," she held out some clothing towards Gin. Gin looked at them. It was an outfit that didn't match her style at all. A pair of tight knee length shorts that were black and a top that looked like the top of a plain baby blue kimono that ended halfway down her butt. Gin liked it. It was stylish yet good for working with. She then slipped on a pair of blue sandals that everyone else was wearing.

"Wow! This is great Tsunade, thank you!" she said.

"Now, let's begin training. First off were going to have to teach you how to tap into your chakra," she said.

"Umm… OK, what's chakra?" asked Gin, feeling like an idiot.

"Chakra is like energy. It permits you to be able to do jutsus, heal and many other things," said Tsunade.

"So how do I tap into my chakra?"

"Like this."

The two trained for hours and Gin finally got the hang of taping into her chakra, but Tsunade immediately realized that Gin had an unlimited supply of chakra. This meaning that if she were to ever to use a complicated jutsu once then she would pass out for a few hours. And even if she used a minor jutsu she would become very weak.

Tsunade cut the training here so as to figure out how to work around this flaw. She went to her office to think. The girl mostly had her heart set on becoming a medical ninja over all. All in all, Tsunade decided that she wouldn't permit the girl to use any ninjutsu or genjutsu. For now Tsunade would teach her, taijutsu and healing jutsu.

Gin sat in her room thinking about what Tsunade said about Itachi earlier. _'Akatsuki…'_ A brilliant plan formed in her mind, but a rather daring one at that. But Gin needed to see Itachi again. All her life she had searched for true love, and she would do anything. Gin would join the Akatsuki.

Dun dun duuuun… Yeah this chapter doesn's have Itachi but the next one will. WOW it only took me like 3 days to update. Anywhoo I already have the 3rd chapter halfway done. PLEASE R&R!!!!!


	3. akatsuki

Sorry guys, there's a big time skip from the beginning of the story it's like 2 years, but who really wants to know what happens during those 2 years? XD On with the story… even though no one's reading it…

Disclaimer: don't own.

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2years later 

Gin sat outside of the hokage's office, waiting for team 7, now consisting of Sai, Sakura and Naruto to emerge from the doors and tell her of their mission. It was a very important mission; they had gone to rescue Sasuke. Gin hoped, especially for Sakura's sake that they had succeeded.

After a long wait the doors finally opened and team 7 stepped out and she could tell straight away that their mission was a failure by the sullen looks on their faces.

"What happened?" she asked her pink haired friend.

"…" was all her response. Sakura had now taken Gin's spot as Tsunade's apprentice. Gin had already learned all that she could from her sensei. She was an excellent medic-nin, her skills almost rivaling Tsunade's herself, and her Taijutsu was chunin level, but Sakura could learn so much more under the wing of Tsunade with her perfect chakra control.

Once team 7 left after Gin cooked them a small meal, she headed back to her room to think; but not before her annoying little sister, Rini who was now 7, stopped her.

"Gin-gin-chan!!" she cried while jumping on her older sister.

"What?" Gin replied. Rini and aunt Taka had come to live with Tsunade, Gin and Shizune a year ago after they had visited her. They liked the village so much that they decided to stay. Under Gin's instructions, aunt Taka was able to become a good enough medic to become one of the head doctors at the hospital and Rini had just started at the academy. All in all life was better than ever and Gin's family was enjoying the shinobi life.

"The first day at the academy was sooooo cool!" The blond haired girl screamed. "And…" Rini paused shyly, "especially cause there's this boy…" Rini blushed uncontrollably.

Gin watched the little girl who so reminded her of Sakura more and more everyday. "That's great Rini, don't be embarrassed, it's only normal to have a crush." She reassured her little sister.

"Who said it was a crush!" Rini countered, obviously she was in denial.

"Never mind… I'm going for a nap…" Gin sighed.

"Nap?! It's 4 o'clock!" Rini stated incredulously.

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When Gin reached her room, Rinis' statement made her think. _'Why does everyone else's love lives seem to be less complicated. I mean, I have only seen my true love once, ONCE!' _Yes. Gin still thought of Itachi after 2 years and she still planed on joining the Akatsuki if she only knew of a way.

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8 o'clock

It was the evening of that very same day and Gin was restless due to the nap she had, had only hours ago. Having nothing to do she decided to take a walk in the hokages' garden.

Naruto was out at the ramen stand probably, aunt Taka was at the hospital, Gin was asleep, Tsunade was busy, and the rest, Gin could not find. She stood on the bridge and watched the lake below her reflect the stars above. _'I wish there was someway to be with Itachi' _she thought to herself bitterly.

Suddenly Gin heard a rustle in the bushes behind her.

"Who is it?" she asked, with a startled look on her face as she took a fighting stance.

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Deidera sat behind the small bush glad to have been given a mission without Tobi for once. He was also mad that he had been injured earlier on and had no way of healing himself without being spotted.

His mission was a simple task, to find some candidates who were worthy enough to temporarily replace Orochimaru. He would bring them to the leader and they would go through a painful test.

On his journey, Deidera decided it would be a good idea to check out/spy what the Hokage was doing. Maybe Konoha knew more about Akatsuki than expected. But what Deidera didn't expect to see was that girl in the garden.

It was rather amusing to watch her as she threatened to murder whomever dared to come near. Deidera laughed, deciding he would play with the girl some more he revealed himself from his hiding place.

The girl noticed him straight away and turned to face him. She stared up in awe when she noticed his cloak. "Your…"

Deidera grinned, "Akatsuki." He finished her sentence.

Immediately coming back to the world when she saw the wound on Deideras' right leg, she asked, "How did you get that?" she pointed to his leg.

"None of business," Deidera replied coldly, the truth was, he had received the injury by falling from a tree. Something he would never share with anyone or else he would lose his reputation.

"W-would you like m-me to heal it?" The girl asked timidly. What was she playing at? Deidera pondered, he had just told her he was Akatsuki, shouldn't she be running for Tsunade? Deidera wasn't so sure but he could feel her chakra flow, and if there were any problems he could definitely take this girl if she pulled a fast one. Besides, he really needed a doctor.

The girl approached cautiously as Deidera stood in the same place, watching her. She lifted her hand to his leg as a dim blue light flowed from it to his leg and he felt a satisfying tingle replace the stinging the once was there.

When she was done, Deidera sighed contently and watched the girl as she panted for air on all fours. It only made sense with that amount of chakra.

"You come in handy, un" he told her as her breathing finally steadied and she stood up. "Would you like to join the Akatsuki?" Deidera expected the girl to not be a danger as she had just healed him, besides, if there was a chance she refused his offer and for her to tell someone of his whereabouts he would just kill her.

"Y-yes," Deidera was almost certain he had seen the girls' eyes light up when he had asked her. It was also a little bizarre that she agreed so quickly. But it was no matter, the leader would decide if she could stay or not, but she would definitely not be replacing Orochimaru. The Akatsuki needed a real medic-nin, it was not fun being stitched up by Kakuzu.

"Where's your house, you gotta get packed up un," Said Deidera.

"O-oh, it's right here." She pointed toward the Hokage's place. This girl lived with Tsunade, no wonder she was such a good medic-nin, but he would have to be extra careful with her.

"Go get packed." He ordered.

The girl ran to the large house almost eagerly, what was up with that?

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Gin stepped into the house quietly as to not wake anyone, she felt guilty for leaving her friends and family behind like Sasuke but they wouldn't understand. She wondered if Sasuke himself felt the same way as her; leaving everyone behind for something you've wanted all your life. But this was the exact opposite. Sasuke was out to kill Itachi, and Gin wanted something completely different.

Gin grabbed the money she had saved up from working at the hospital and a few toiletries. She packed her clothes and at least 20 of her favorite kimono from her large closet. She got ready as fast as she could, dressing into the outfit Tsunade gave her for missions and such. Her light blue kimono top with tight women's ninja pants.

She then grabbed a small photo album to remember her friends by.

Gin walked out of her old home as if into her new life. This was it, the moment she had waited for 2 years had come. It had come so unexpectedly Gin almost felt dizzy from all the thought and hopes for the near future that hit her like a brick when the blond man had asked her the question. She squealed inwardly at how happy she was.

When she reached the blond man she gasped in surprise to see he was atop of a giant clay bird. The man intimidated Gin so she stuttered out her sentence, "I-I'm r-ready."

"Good un, now let's go."

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Gin and Deidera, as she now knew him to be, flew over fields and forests for what seemed like hours. The wait was to much to bare; but finally after a few more minutes, Gin could feel the giant bird begin to descend.

"Are we there?" she asked.

"Yes un," Deidera replied.

Gin began to doubt the situation when they finally landed. They were in a normal farmers field with a large human sized rock in the middle, but Deidera just walked up to it as if it were the evil lair itself.

Deidera made a few odd hand signs and then hit the rock with his 2 palms. The next minute, Gin was starring at a big hole in the rock.

Gin stepped into the hole. She gasped at what she saw. Instead of a dark underground tunnel like she expected, she stared at a large field with a mansion in the middle surrounded by forest. The mansion was 5 times the size of Tsunade's. It seemed rock acted as a teleporter. She did not know where she was, all she knew was that she was in heaven.

For such an evil organization they sure did like beautiful things for the garden was much nicer than even Tsunade's. The lake and water fall were the main focus points in the garden. There was a large wooden bridge with a peacock, tail spread wide, on top, a large cherry blossom tree and a little stone bench, a cute wooden swing with flowers growing around it and numerous other types of flowers around the garden.

The mansion was very grand and the landscaping wasn't traditional like Tsunade's but it was still very beautiful in its rich suburban way. The house had a very odd shape though. It took the shape of a U or horse shoe, surrounding the breathtaking garden. Gin could also see a large training ground tucked out back. The house looked as if it were a 2 story including a basement maybe, and the whole thing was surrounded by forest as far as the eye could see. _'Makes sense.'_ Gin thought.

She looked back at the rock to see Deidera climbing out of the rock."Come on," said Deidera, "I wanna get this over with so I can get back to my mission."

They walked up to the large house. Gin was almost shaking with anticipation, until nervousness sunk in and she began to hesitate. '_What if he thinks I'm ugly?'_ she worried. Gin began to fiddle with her blue kimono top as she stared at her feet. She so badly wanted to turn around and run as far away from this place as possible. She had waited for this moment for over 2 years. The day she joined Akatsuki and reunited with her true love. And it had come even easier than she had expected. But now she could hardly take it. Her nerves felt like they were taking an enormous dive. Gin was already through the door without even realizing it. Still staring at her feet. She had no idea what was in store for her.

"I'm taking you to the leader," Deidera's voice tore her from her reverie.

She finally looked up to see where she was. The inside of the mansion was much more what she expected the Akatsuki lair would look like. It was like walking into a cave, with the stonewalls and cold air. The place looked relatively empty, the only source of light came from burning torches on the walls. Gin guessed the mansions exterior was just a good cover up for the evil lair.

"Deidera-kun! Why are you back so early?" Gin heard a voice from behind. She turned to see a boy her age with a spirally mask on.

She could feel Deidera shudder at the presence of the boy.

"This girl will come in handy she is a medic-nin trained by Tsunade herself un." He answered.

"Are you taking her to the leader?" the boy asked.

"Yes."

"Can I come?"

"No."

"Oh well, I'm coming anyways!" Gin didn't really think the boys attitude really fitted the roll of an Akatsuki member but she hardly knew a thing about the organization.

The three set for what Gin assumed was the leaders office. The front door opened up to a long almost never-ending hallway with stonewalls and large red doors on either side, which freaked Gin out. She wondered what type of things were behind the doors but she passed them all by as she followed Deidera and Tobi.

The place looked as if it had no electricity, Gin prayed it did, a girl could only go so far for love.

They stopped at the end of the hall where there stood one single red door. Gin felt her stomach flip as Deidera reached his hand out to grab the handle. She started to doubt her situation again, what if Itachi had quit Akatsuki long time ago? That wouldn't be too good. But then Gin realized she was just paranoid as Sakura and Naruto had told her of their meeting with the Uchiha protégé just a few days ago.

The three entered the dark room' Gin could feel an odd shiver run up her back as she set her eyes on the room before her. It was almost completely empty except for a large desk at the back of the room.

The room was completely pitch black, the only light source came from a small sliver in the red curtain, which was behind the desk, where the light was able to sneak past the window. The small sliver of light cast a line that cut straight through his face showing only a small amount of his face. Gin lowered her head and kept behind Deidera and Tobi.

"Leader, un," said Deidera.

"Deidera-san," the man answered in a deep voice.

"i have brought someone of use, but she will not be replacing Orochimaru," said Deidera.

"Ah, I was wondering why you were back so early," the leader said. "Come out little girl," he beckoned her.

Gin took a slight timid step forward.

"So why did you bring her here?" he asked. "She looks to weak for the Akatsuki, I can sense her chakra is not even half the amount of a genin's." Gin felt his words like a stab. But it was true, her ninjutsu didn't even compare to a genin's but that didn't stop Gin from becoming a medic ninja she didn't even care if she passed out every time she used her abilities; she was still very skilled.

"She will be very useful to us, we can assure you Rei-sama, un. She is a trained medic-nin whose abilities rival Tsunade's herself. In fact she was trained by Tsunade, un." Said Deidera.

"Very good Deidera and Tobi. I do not need a demonstration, I trust your judgment." The leader said.

"But there is one thing…" said Deidera.

"What is that?"

"Like you said, un, she has very low chakra, meaning a simple medical jutsu can tire her out easily." Said Deidera.

"Very well, I still believe she will be handy," The leader said. Gin let out a tiny sigh of relief. The leader looked at her, causing her to hide even more behind Deidera and Tobi. She didn't even know what this man looked like.

"Tell me girl," Gin squeaked at being addressed, "Why are you so eager to join our group? I don't believe you are a spy, I can tell these sorts of things. Besides, if you were a spy, I'd kill everyone close to you and yourself. So, is it search for power, does your past drive you away from your home, is it _love?_" Gin hated the way he said love. As if he knew something. Gin began to paranoi that he could read her mind. Something that didn't make her feel to comfortable.

"I-I d-don't-t r-really know." Her voice became an odd squeaky tone.

"Deidera, take her to her room." The leader ordered.

Deidera grabbed Gin by the collar of the neck and dragged her into the hall. Tobi stayed back in the room to talk to the leader looking overly excited.

Deidera finally let go of Gin's collar as they walked down the hall.

"While you live in this place don't go in any of the rooms except for normal places like bedrooms, living room, kitchen etc…" He explained. Gin nodded and took in every single word he said, not wanting to mess everything up. "Also, Kisame and Itachi will be the only ones around for a while because they've already completed their missions. I wouldn't disturb them if I were you, un." He warned her. Gin didn't care, this peace of information was the highlight of her day. This meant her and Itachi could be alone in this big mansion with that blue guy off doing business. How exciting, and to think that Itachi was right now in the exact same building as her made a shiver of pleasure run down her spine.

"This is your room," Deidera finally said after walking through countless cold halls that all looked alike. How would she ever find her way around tomorrow? "Everyone else's rooms are in this hall to. It's much easier, un. Tobi, the idiot, still doesn't know his way around the place," he murmured.

"Thank you," Gin mumbled, she was too nervous to ask which rooms were the kitchen and living room. _'Great, I'm living in a maze.' _

Deidera left and she opened the door to her new room. For such a dark and damp place, the rooms weren't too bad. Gin was half expecting a dungeon. At first glance, Gin could tell she had her own bathroom and closet just like her other room. It was very plain though with white walls, white floor and white furniture. Gin was relieved though to see a television. Something that she guessed would come in handy.

Gin took a step in her, also white, bathroom; no hot tub but at least there was a shower. Gin hoped she would be able to paint the place. The white almost gave her a headache.

Gin settled down on the bed. Her bags seemed to already be in the corner of her room. She thought about looking for Itachi, but she had to make the perfect 'second' appearance. She took a long shower to get a little cleaned up. Once she dried her hair she did something she rarely did. She opened up her kimono bag and slipped on her number 1, her very favorite kimono. It wasn't the best one in the pile, but in Gin's eyes it was gorgeous. The reason she found it so beautiful was because it matched her style. It was really just a plain grey, with a few blue spirals. The kimono was over all made for comfort and wasn't really flattering.

The kimono was a loose fit that did not complement Gin's tiny figure and made her look less hourglass. This obviously made Gin feel like she was not as pretty when all she had to do was wear clothing that complemented her.

Gin made sure every curl on top of her head was completely perfect and that her face didn't have an embarrassing zit. Looking in the mirror, she looked plain and dumpy with the large kimono on her short figure.

Gin chickened out once she reached the doorknob, realizing this outfit made her look desperate and a little obvious. She turned around and quickly changed into something else subtle. Gin then realized the outfit was a little too subtle. She changed her outfit at least 3 more times and finally settled for a pair of jeans and a long sleeved, black shirt. The outfit was so plain, Gin started to sulk but it was the best she could do.

Gin opened her door to see the long confusing hall that was identical to all the others. _Uh oh…_

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After countless minutes of searching,

Gin finally found a room with voices coming from it. This was it. Gin could feel her heart beat quicken as she raised her hand to the doorknob. She turned it and opened.

There he was, in the middle of the room with his Akatsuki cloak. The blue man, Kisame, stared at Gin but she didn't even notice him. Itachi also stared and she noticed this. _'Oh my gosh, he's so gorgeous' _Gin had the same feeling that she had the day she first set eyes on him. It felt so good. Like winning the lottery. Gin had to control herself to not jump up and down like a fool, but she could not control the color of her face or the way she almost viciously tugging at her shirt.

"Hello," she sounded like an inaudible mouse.

"I know you…" said Kisame. "Your face is familiar."

Gin suddenly noticed she was in the kitchen, which would have made her hungry, seeing as she hadn't eaten in ages but all she could think of was Itachi.

"You're a friend of that stupid blonde boy, the one with the demon," Said Kisame the shark/man. _'Naruto has a demon?'_ Gin really didn't care about that little discovery though. She knew there had to be an explanation for the chakra anyways.

"I'm Gin,"

"Well, I guess you're gonna be the only woman in this house… During the day," Kisame added with a smirk, sneaking a glance at the oddly quiet Itachi. "Make yourself useful girl and make me some lunch, I'm starved. Make it quick too," Kisame ordered gruffly.

"O-OK," Gin stepped further into the kitchen aware of her body more than ever. Every move she made felt so unnatural and staged when she was around Itachi. _Left foot, right foot_. Gin didn't know where her arms belonged. By her side? Should she do something with them? Gin awkwardly passed Itachi as she headed for the sink practically shaking with her arms nearly glued to her sides.

"What would you like?" Gin asked Kisame.

"Anything," he growled.

Gin opened the fridge to see what ingredients were there.

"Would you like eel dumbari?" She asked timidly, feeling Itachi's stare on her back. Hopefully he'd notice her excellent cooking skills.

"Sure,"

"W-would y-y-you like some?" Gin stuttered as she spoke to Itachi being the first time ever. Itachi accepted and Gin began to cook. Gin could sense the 2 at the table, starring at her. She pulled out a variety of different spices and marinades for the eel. _'I have to make this perfect for Itachi." _She was determined not to make a fool of herself.

She worked away with expert hands frying the eel to a perfect golden brown while the rice was cooking. Gin tried her best to ignore the eerie silence in the back of the room. _'Why are they starring at me? Do I have something on my butt?' _ Gin made a double check just in case_. 'Nope. Thank god. Maybe they were just silent like this always.' _

She finished up the eel and threw it on top of the rice in three bowls. She was hungry too. With shaking hands Gin set the bowls down in front of the two men. _'I'm almost a foot away from him!' _She thought as she set the dish before Itachi.

Gin thought it would be to awkward sitting at the table so she decided to eat at the counter. Gin pulled up a stool and climbed up. The stool was a little wobbly but she could compromise. Never forgetting Itachi's presence Gin reached for the pepper over the sink.

CRASH!!!!

The stool broke. Gin fell to the floor and with a sickening splat fell on her left arm. Gin realized her arm was broken and began to cry a little as she hid her eyes. Not because of the pain but because of the embarrassment. She could hear Kisame's laughs and feel Itachi's eyes. Quickly she healed the bone and stood up; her face heating up no matter how hard she willed it not to.

Quickly, Gin grabbed her supper apologized while bowing and headed back to her room, her face glowing like a ripe tomato. All-in-all, it was a great second impression.

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I think this chapter was pretty long, I'm so proud! Lol… anywhoo hoped you liked it, and a special thanks to Valbino, Itachi'sgirl4ever, chinbaldo and all you other people who read my fic that I don't know about! I'm begging you all to review! XD thanks!


	4. training

Hey! Here's the next chapter! Hopefully I start getting more reviews soon…hint, hint. Anyhoo… I am so sorry to those of you who do read this for the long wait. I was grounded for 3 weeks. Yup, that's right, three! I had exams and b4 that I had this tiny bit of science homework that I handed in 2 days late, and my parents grounded me! No ipod, no TV, and NO computer! Yah… my parents are both school principles so you can imagine. My friends wonder how I live. Anyways, then I went to like a million friends places over the weeks, one night at this persons place, next at this persons. The I went to 2 major concerts, Nickel Back, Stain, Buckcherry, Finger eleven, Default and Hedley. THEN I had to go away for a while for my grandparents 50th anniversary. And don't forget I had work in between all this.:(

P.S. I'm gonna make the story progress slower from now on cause the last 3 chapters were like lightning fast (not talking about the update pace but the pace of my storyline. Well… maybe the update pace as well.) But who really wants to learn more about my character? I don't! ;p

Disclaimer: I don't own.

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Gin spent a sleepless night in her bedroom replaying the embarrassing events the night before. When she finally fell asleep she had numerous nightmares all including other possible embarrassing situations. She woke up the next morning to find dark circles under her captivating eyes, taking all the captivity away. She decided to take a quick shower to wake herself up and possibly clear her mind of negative thoughts.

By now she had already realized that being Akatsuki would not be as nice as expected, but that didn't mean she wouldn't try to make it worth her while. Turning the lever on the shower to cold, she began to undress from her nightgown and stepped in, letting a gasp escape her as she felt the chill water hit her body immediately; she changed the temperature back to warm. That definitely woke her up, her eyesight was finally clear and her mind was now fully aware of it's surroundings. Gin started singing a happy tune as all thoughts of the previous day finally escaped her mind to be replaced by thoughts of Itachi.

_You run, and fly,_

_With keo by your side_

_You are, the one _

_Who will find the card_

_In time… _

_She is just an ordinary girl_

_In a magical world_

_Now she's on the trail of trouble… _

After the nice shower, Gin felt more refreshed and relaxed. She left her hair wet and dried off her body with a towel, she then changed into a baggy sweatshirt and jeans. She actually liked the sweatshirt, despite its grunge-like appearance, because it made her look larger instead of stick-like, but it still did nothing for her short factor. Her attire made her appear comfy and laid back; like she was confident in the way she looked and didn't need to apply makeup or wear fancy clothing. Gin liked that, but she still did look grungy.

The grumbling in her stomach told Gin she needed some breakfast despite the fact that it was only 6:30 in the morning. She was always an early riser and rarely slept in till 8. Gin always felt like being awake most of the day because she was able to do more things. She headed toward her door and entered the hallway. She now knew her way to the kitchen and made her way. She took three lefts, took a right into the next hallway and headed to the door at the end, the sounds of her own footsteps echoing throughout the building was all she could hear.

She finally reached the end of the hall and took the door to her left and stepped into the place that she remembered as the room of pure embarrassment for it was the only place her imagination had visited the night before. As she stepped in she spotted Itachi at the table with a cup of some type of liquid in his hand and his cloak had been removed. She noticed that she had never really seen the shape of his body before, for it was hidden beneath that huge cloak. For all she knew, he could have been a fatty, but what she saw did not disappoint. He was modestly built, but not so that it was disgusting. Actually he was built the way Gin liked them, tall and slim and filled out perfectly. She could imagine his chest to be the perfect shape; none of those huge man pecks or big huge veins or bulges. That was just disgusting, but firm and strong. She noticed that he spotted her staring at him and blushed.

"Um…would you like some breakfast?" she offered him but he refused her politely. Gin rather reveled in the fact that he had manners. She had noticed them when she had first met him with Naruto, but he was still evil and obviously his politeness wasn't such a big deal in the long run, but Gin didn't know just _how _evil he really was.

Gin bowed to him nervously and started cooking herself a serving of rice. When the rice was finished she added some canned tuna and soy sauce. This time she decided to eat at the table, regardless of how odd it was to be sitting next to the Uchiha as an act of precaution, in case she broke another stool. She sat in front of Itachi, quietly eating, making sure not to look his way because she could feel red eyes burning into her forehead. Finally deciding that the silence was too much, Gin attempted at a conversation, and she picked the worst possible topic.

"Um… Sasuke is doing pretty bad, he ran away from home you know, probably cause of you." She went on dumbly. She couldn't help it. The only thing Gin knew that she and Itachi had in common was that they knew Sasuke so in her mind for those few seconds it was the perfect conversation. But after she had said it she had remembered that the last time the two Uchihas had been in the same room, they had tried to kill each other. Thankfully she saw the expression on Itachi's face had remained impassive so she decided to change the topic.

"Um, so… are there many others in this organization?" It was a stupid question because she already knew the answer, but he didn't know that. But she wondered if he'd acknowledge her by saying 10 instead of 9, it would have been a small way of showing that he considered her as part of the organization, but she would be honored.

"There are 9." He answered simply.

"Oh… Are they nice?" what kind of idiotic question was that, Gin made a squashed face that probably made her thoughts obvious.

"I don't really talk with them, but I'd say yes," his answer surprised her a little but she appreciated it. Blushing, Gin decided that conversation with Itachi was even more awkward than silence so she continued eating. Halfway throughout her breakfast though, she had finally realized that Itachi really wasn't doing anything. He just sat there, staring. Face beet red, she decided her conversation method was much more effective even if it was more like an interrogation.

"D-do I have to go on missions too or do I just stay here and heal people who come back harmed?" She asked not only out of her vain attempt to start a conversation but out of curiosity as well.

"If someone has been hurt, his body will be transported here so that you may heal them. Your chakra is to weak to allow you to travel and then heal someone without having to regenerate yourself. It would be too troublesome." He went on as he continued to stare her down.

Gin blushed, she was usually not ashamed of her chakra level, but being considered as weak by someone you admire really hurts. She quickly gobbled the rest of her food while ignoring the uneasy feeling that she got around Itachi now that she had actually tried to get to know him. Once she finished she quickly washed her dishes and decidedly did the ones from last night then left with a quick bow to Itachi.

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She walked through the halls thinking how much of a let down Itachi really was. But deep down she couldn't help but still feel something when she looked at him. She told herself inwardly that he was heartless and just plain boring, but really it was just her way of dealing with the true fact, that she liked him a lot, and that was all there was to be said of their relationship. The relationship would stay that way too, there was no way in hell that he could fall for her.

She sighed as she reached her door, stepping inside, she changed her mind and decided it would be a good idea to go outside and train; her taijutsu still had room for improvement. But first she had to put on the training clothes from Tsunade.

Changed and ready to go, Gin couldn't help but look down at her clothing and think of how indebted to Tsunade she was. Tsunade had given her everything, practically made Gins' dream to become a kunoichi a reality and Gin had repaid her by running away by joining the very group that everyone feared. Gin did it for love though, but now that her plans didn't go as planed, she felt much worse. But Tsunade did almost betray everyone when Orochimaru had promised her to bring back her brother and lover, Dan.

Gin made her way to the training fields, which literally took her almost ten minutes because of the houses grand size. Taking a more detailed look at the training grounds since when she had arrived here, she noticed the field to be very large, it was entirely surrounded by red and white targets for shuriken tossing, there were also a few trees and large rocks, here and there. All in all, it was just some big field.

Seeing as there were no obstacles for her to practice on, Gin used one of the very few nin jutsus she knew and created a clone of herself to fight against.

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After some brutal training, well as brutal as you can get for someone with as much chakra as Gin, she turned and headed back to the house to take a shower when a voice stopped her.

"Impressive," it said. At once, Gin recognized it to be Itachi. And did he just complement her?

"Um…" she blushed.

"For someone with so little chakra, your hard work has certainly paid off," he was coming from the forest just beyond the training grounds. Gin became a little paranoid as she wondered if he was watching her the whole time. She had made a few ungraceful falls that she would be ashamed to have anyone witness. But the neutral expression on his face did not contain a single trace of mocking.

" You are a descent kunoichi and I complement you on that." Gin blushed hard; maybe there was a chance for him and her. "I could teach you much more, I believe that there could be much room for improvement." He offered.

"O-ok…" Gin just couldn't refuse, she was too busy picturing the two of them spending time together in the training fields, not the ideal spot, but a chance to be together none the less. "Of course I will!" Gin felt a small raindrop splatter her forehead as she smiled at Itachi for the first time. It was a confident smile, one that said thank you. But as soon as it had come the rain practically came down in bricks. She frowned as the sky clouded over and blocked the sun completely, taking away the brightness of the day and making it almost seem like nighttime.

"I guess we'll have to train sometime else then," she said as her clothing began to stick to her uncomfortably.

"No, we can train now." He startled her. She really didn't want to train when she was this soaked but she didn't want to pass up the chance either.

"Come," he told her.

Itachi started towards the forest and Gin followed at least 5 paces behind him. She yearned to cuddle into a cozy blanket but she yearned even more to be with Itachi. She had no clue why they were headed for the forest but followed anyways. She watched Itachi whose shirt was equally as soaked as her own and was sticking to every muscle on his body. When they reached the edge of the forest Itachi kept on walking in so Gin kept on following, obviously, he knew where he was going.

They stopped in a small clearing in the woods that had obviously been used for training, if not then there had been a pretty intense battle because the trees were pretty banged up from what looked like kunai blades.

"I hate the training fields, this is so much more isolating, and it helps me concentrate," he told her. Gin thought it was very endearing of him to show her his very own secret training area. "So… do you know any ninjutsu?"

"Um, no,"

"Here, I guess I'll show you a technique," he stepped closer to her, but Gin backed away.

"I'm not allowed, Tsunade says I could die depending on the power of the ninjutsu!" Gin felt alarmed and a little scared. She had always been afraid to try new jutsus for what they may do to her health.

"I can sense your chakra and I promise you won't die. My senses are much more accurate then those of Tsunade Sama." Gin decided to put her trust in Itachi as he closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around from behind her as he took her hands. Gin felt numerous tinglings from every little touch. Soon enough they started to build up in her stomach, a feeling of complete bliss. And his arms around kept her warm from the rain. Itachi kept his face in the crook of her neck as he looked over her shoulder. She could just barely feel his lips graze her neck, she wanted more of this feeling but there was nothing she could do.

Gin resisted his touch so as she wouldn't look like a fool. "First," he breathed in her ear, "Let the chakra run through your body." The way he said that, made it hard to resist, but Gin still tried to do as she was told.

Concentrating as hard as she could, she did the same thing she did with her medical jutsus, but instead of concentrating her chakra to only one part of her body, which usually was her hands, she let the chakra circulate through her body. It was actually a wonderful feeling; it almost made her feel powerful to have energy running through her.

"Good, now follow me," Itachi had her hands in his and started molding them into different signs. Itachi set Gins wet hands free so she could do the signs herself. Gin followed what he had showed her to do. "Now propel all of the chakra as if pushing it out." Gin obeyed. A large ball of fire escaped her mouth. Gin gasped, it was the size of a small house. It quickly burnt out due to the rain and Gin turned to Itachi with a mixture of excitement and bewilderment.

"How did I do that, why didn't I faint?" she asked.

"I lent you a small amount of my chakra." He said plainly.

"Oh…" Gin couldn't help feel disappointment at those words, it reminded her that she wasn't strong enough to do things on her own. Obviously Itachi could detect the sadness.

"You know, all great Shinobi don't start out with massive amounts of chakra. Naruto is an exception, but I doubt you could call him great." Gin giggled. "Shinobi have to build their skills, I just gave you a small boost to show you, that you can do these jutsus."

"Thank you Itachi," Gin replied timidly. He didn't know it, but that had given Gin the biggest boost of confidence she'd ever get.

"Lets go back, it's already 7 o'clock." Yes. Gin had been training the whole day but she was grateful to get inside and possibly cuddle up in her blankets with a nice hot chocolate.

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Gin headed straight for her room, cleaned up and dressed into her nightgown. Afterwards she headed straight for the kitchen to fetch that hot chocolate. She made enough hot chocolate for three people in case Kisame or Itachi came in and felt like some. Gin left the pot on the stove, which she turned off for safety reasons, and headed back to her room for a good sleep with promises of dreams about love and Itachi as opposed to embarrassing disasters.

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Wow this chapter is short and not worth the wait but the next one is. The next one is where (I think) the story gets real interesting. I know you'll like it. : ) p.s. just a reminder to how sorry I am for that wait. REVIEW!!!!!


	5. reality sinks in

Reality sinks in

This is the chapter where the story really begins. At least I think, also sorry for the delay, I might have become a little Harry Potter loco over the past few weeks with the movie and the book and all. I also have a thing for Draco Malfoy but that's just me and my obsession with bad boys. I think he's hot ;).

-Thanks to Valbino for taking the time to read my story, reviewing and updating her own stories (literally it's like a chapter a day!). And yes, the characters are kind of OOC, sorry for that, but I kind of did it for the purpose of the story, and thanks for the tip on the whole kun/sempai thing. I remembered there was some kind of word that Tobi used after Deidera but I forgot what it was.

-Thanks Itachi's girl 4 ever for reviewing as well. You don't know how glad I am that you like my story. Anyways I hope you might like this chapter cause I'm kind of nervous about it, I think I'm either gonna have a positive or negative affect on how many people like my story. So either you like it, or not.

-And I'd also like to thank Evelyn627 and Chinbaldo for adding this story to your alert list! THANKS! And everybody else who likes my story too! Phew, now that, that's done, on with the story.

Disclaimer: Don't own.

P.S. I'm kind of embarrassed about this chapter cause I'm a little bit of a prude.

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Gin sat in her bed sipping her hot chocolate as she stared at the wall dreamily. She still couldn't get any sleep, despite the fact that it was midnight. When she finished sipping her third hot chocolate that night she decided to get up and just explore the rest of the Akatsuki base. Most people would have found this idea a little idiotic, hell, maybe even retarded! But Gin was, at sometimes, kind of dense and at the moment all she could think about was love so she didn't even think about her idea.

Gin first headed to the kitchen, the only room she knew of other than her own room. She stopped at the door on the left of the kitchen and examined it. It looked fairly normal in her eyes so she cautiously opened it. She didn't know what to expect seeing as Deidera told her to stick to the normal rooms such as living rooms and the kitchen. She wondered what type of rooms she wasn't aloud into. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw a normal dinning room. _'Figures, the kitchen is only next door.' _She walked in and decided to examine the room a little closer.

At closer inspection, the dinning room looked unused. There was a long wooden table that sat close to the floor like most Japanese tables. The table was large enough for about 10-15 people but there were no cushions for seating, on the ground. Gin didn't find it terribly odd for a group such as this to not dine in this beautiful room. Actually she might've thought it more odd to watch a gang all sitting together and acting like civilized, everyday people over dinner.

Gin giggled as she pictured it.

_0o0akatsuki dining room0o0_

_Deidera: Itachi could you please pass me the butter:D_

_Itachi: Of course Deidera-kun, here you are! ;)_

_Leader: Kisame-kun, I've made you your favorite meal! _

_Kisame: YAY!!! Sushi! (Gobble, gobble, gobble) wait, this is, AHHHHHHH! (Runs away)._

_Tobi: what's with him?_

_Itachi: I think he just ate his cousin._

_Leader: chuckles evilly…_

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Gin found herself laughing out loud at just the thought. Probably the only one she could see doing all of that would be Tobi. She immediately left the room to do a little more exploring. For some reason she felt like a little girl again, carefree, curious, in love. It was the most exciting feeling she had ever had.

Gins bare feet skipped over the concrete floor and reached to a halt in front of yet another door. For some reason this door had caught her attention. It looked almost ancient, like something you'd see in "The Mummy". It had odd markings on it. There was a large circle on which there were nine smaller circles surrounding it; each circle had a sign in it. Gin looked at the large stone door and knew instantly that she should not enter it.

Gin stayed in front of the door, wondering if she was brave enough to enter. In the end she decided against it when she heard a slight noise to her left, it was only a mouse but it was enough to scare the shit out of her.

Gin found herself scurrying back to the hall where the bedrooms were situated. Turn after turn, she sighed in relief when she had finally met her destination. She passed the doors of the Akatsuki members she did not even know, one by one until she finally reached one of the few doors she actually recognized. It was Itachi's, the door next to hers. She couldn't help but pause to look at it. She stood there as she dreamt up an image of his sleeping frame, but a voice broke her train of thoughts.

"Come over here," it said, her heart skipped a beat when she realized it was Itachi. Gin quickly spun around to find that the red-eyed ninja was not there; she then realized that the voice had come from his room. Gin blushed, _'A ninja like him would never let their guard down, not even at night. He probably sensed my chakra presence.' _Gin lifted her hand to the doorknob, there was no sense in acting like she wasn't there; but suddenly a voice froze her I mid-motion.

"Oh Itachi. I love you so much," Gin froze, her heart started beating faster, she could feel its pumping cause her throat to swell up as she suppressed a tiny sob_. 'Was that… A woman?' _As quietly as she could, she pressed her ear up to the door and listened for any words that could make this whole silly mistake clear. Maybe she was hearing things. But things only got worse as she heard what was unmistakably the sound of lips mashing together, skin on skin and the light moaning of a woman. Gin felt a knot tie up in her stomach, Itachi was with a woman; whether it be his lover or just a one night stand it didn't matter to Gin at all, it hurt either way. Gin quietly made her way back to her room, her heart aching all the while. Once she was halfway to her room, Gin heard the three words that would break her heart over and over again.

"I love you," whispered Itachi, sending Gin's aching heart to a crash and burn. Gin broke out into a run as she sobbed into her hands. She ran to her door and with clumsy hands, turned the doorknob and fell on her bed. She cried until her eyes became all dried and puffy and fell asleep. The worst part is, was that she could actually hear Itachi and that girl. It was just so revolting and disgusting and it made her situation all the worse.

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Gin woke up the next day with sore eyes from all her crying. It was hard to look in the mirror without being reminded of all the crying that she did last night. Gin sulked over to the shower and undressed slowly. All she had on her mind were the thoughts of him and her. If she guessed, the girl was probably tall but not as tall as Itachi, only short enough for him to still look like the man and also tall enough so that he doesn't have to think about it all the time. She was probably well built too, not Dolly built but not built like a stick either; she probably had the perfect body, like Jessica Alba or Rachel Macadam. Also she probably had great hair, not curly and brown like Gin's but long sleek and shiny. Gin was almost killing herself thinking how probably much more perfect this girl was than her. She dressed in her most poor outfit out of complete hopelessness and didn't even bother to check her reflection in the mirror before leaving for the kitchen.

On her way she bumped into Jessica-Alba-from-the-neck-down-girl. Her hair was, as predicted, long, straight, black, shiny and all together worth one million dollars. She had blinding white teeth and piercing black eyes that even Gin was jealous of. Her skin was perfect for her coloring and she wore a mocking expression at the sight of poor little Gin.

"Awww, poor little girl, sobbing all night. Itachi pretended to ignore it all for the sake of me. He's so talented, it's like he aims to only please, and he does it so well," she said with a tone of false pity.

Gin widened her eyes in shock, _'could they hear me? Was I that loud?' _

"Yes, we could hear you," the older/taller girl clarified at the look on Gins face. "You know, I kind of feel bad for you. You have no chance at all with Itachi and it's almost a pity," the girl had a fake little pout on her lips as she baby talked Gin.

Gin could feel herself blushing harder. "I-i…" her sight began to blur as she felt more tears fill them. She felt so embarrassed, so stupid, so naïve, and so hurt, she could hardly control her tears.

The girl let out a nasty cackle at the sight of a lone tear running down Gin's cheek. Gin let out a little hiccup, a result of trying to contain her sobs. Just as she thought things couldn't get much worse, Itachi showed up behind the gorgeous girl. He seemed to ignore Gin as he addressed the girl.

"It's time for you to go," he said in a tone that did not even remotely resemble the one he had used with her the night before. The night before, Gin recalled a hint of passion and emotion in his voice; but today was as neutral and cold as ever.

"What! Itachi, pwetty pwease? I wanna stay just a little longer." The girl pouted and whined as she stuck out her bosoms seductively.

"I am sorry, but you are not aloud to be here at this time. I will take you back home."

"Are you gonna put those blindfolds on me again?" she giggled as Gin let out another hiccup.

"It is essential that I do," said Itachi, stone faced. It was as if he was unaware of the bombshell in front of him, wearing the same white mini dress from the night before.

"Hmph, fine then," she made a cute gesture with her hips and flipped her hair for affect. Whatever she did last night had obviously worked on this guy, she just had to remember what it was she did right to get her way.

"Gin," Gin lifted her tearstained face out of surprise that he had even remembered her existence. "Clean all of the bedrooms then make some breakfast." Gin gasped, and then bowed her head.

"Hai!" she whipped around to hide the new tears that fell on her cheeks and bolted it out of there. _'Why didn't I expect something like this to happen?' _she asked herself inwardly.

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Gin decided to start with Kisame's bedroom that was next to hers. She was a little unsure of herself as to what she was going to do. Kisame could possibly have something hidden and it would be unwise to stumble upon an object that was private to the larger man. She would probably have to face him if she did. She quietly checked to see if there was anyone occupying the room. Gin's heart skipped a beat when she saw

Kisame sitting on his bed wrapping his large sword in a long, white ribbon. She had not expected him to be there.

"S-sorry!" she clumsily stumbled out of the room. "I-I'll clean your room last if you want me to!" She yelled from outside his door.

Kisame opened his door and grinned at the sight of Gin's red and puffy eyes. "Did reality catch up with you girl or are you still chasing a miracle?" Gin looked up and widened her eyes as she saw the smirk on Kisame's face. "You can clean my room right now, just don't go through my closet, you might even be a little frightened of it," Kisame left Gin to her thoughts as he headed towards the training grounds.

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Gin couldn't help but think of what Kisame had said while she made his bed. _'Does he mean Itachi? Is that what he's talking about?' _she couldn't help but wonder if Kisame knew what had happened last night. _'Well, I am chasing a miracle… How am I supposed to compete with a girl like that? Itachi just brushed me off like I was nothing!' _She bowed her head as the sheets in her hand fell to the ground. Sulking as she picked them up again, Gin resumed her bed making.

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After cleaning all of the rooms, Gin headed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast as she was told to. She pulled out some eggs and bacon and decided to go for a western style meal. As she cooked her eggs (over-easy) she noticed someone entering the room. Her heart jumped when she looked over her shoulder to see Itachi. She then abruptly turned her head to focus on the pot in front of her as she noticed his stare. Her heart ached rather than fleeted now that he was around, it was almost too painful to look into his perfect face.

When Gin finished the meal after constant refusal to let herself look at him, she found Itachi waiting at the table for her. She set down a plate of food, on the table for him and abruptly took her leave without saying a word. It was unbearable to feel the embarrassment and the hurt around him. She left with a peace of toast and bacon in her hand and made her way back to her room; a place that she suspected would be where she would now spend most of her time.

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Sorry for shortness! Phew! That came out a little more dramatically than I'd have thought, I kind of feel like hitting my own character over the head for being such a drama queen. Also I made the beginning of the chapter happy just to make the sudden blow in the face part more surprising and dramatic, although I'm not sure it worked cause I don't have a beta to tell me. Also the whole part with the dinner thing just happened, I don't know why, it just did. Somehow I fit that part into my story cause I just felt like it, this story isn't really a comedy so I don't know… Thank you everyone! R&R!!!!


	6. a better day

Reality becomes the habit

Hey! Sorry for the wait! But I have a good excuse! I was in Scotland! No, really, I _was _in Scotland, for 2 weeks to be exact. My cousin and me both went together to visit my Taunt and my other cousins! They were so cute! Did you know they started school august 15th there? Yah, it sucks! Enjoy! I think you'll find this chapter really cute once you get into it! It's also a little longer than the last few.

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As the days went by and became a total of two weeks, Gin had become more adapted to her new life and had obtained a new lifestyle along with it. She had grown accustomed to Itachi's late night visitors, which happened once or twice in the period of 7 days. This fact, although, didn't mean she was glad or in anyway fine with the idea. After the first night upon discovery, she had learned to stop sobbing but that didn't stop her from listening with a hint of tingling behind her eyes and a few tears that she always denied to herself. She had also learned to avoid bumping in to whomever Itachi had been with, the night before.

The girls were always different from the last but in ways they were the same. For some reason, they all had the same bodies from the neck down, tall, thin and basically perfect. The second girl Gin had the pleasure of bumping into after the dark haired beauty she'd met the first night, was different in personality. This didn't mean she was any more pleasant.

_**Flashback**_

_The tall blond beauty looked down her small, freckled nose to Gin's cowering figure. _

"_Itachi! Who the hell is this?" she asked in a snobbish tone._

"_The maid…" Gin could almost detect a hint of pure mocking in his eyes when he said this. Usually this would have made her bawl her eyes out, but for some reason, it made her somewhat determined, but she had no idea why or what she was determined for. _

"_Then __**why**__, is she not__** cleaning?" **__the blond seemed to be directing her words more to Gin than to anyone else. _

"_Sorry miss…" She answered shyly. It had somewhat became her job now to do most of the cooking and the cleaning ever since the morning Itachi told her to clean all the bedrooms. She really didn't mind though, at least she now had an alternative to sulking about Itachi._

_**End Flashback**_

Gin's day had somewhat been molded into a routinely schedule, first off, shower then dress, 2nd, turn to the right once in hallway to avoid awkward meetings with half naked women and _especially _avoid Itachi. The 3rd part of her schedule was to make breakfast then she ate, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the bedrooms, cleaned the other rooms that she had now discovered once she had become maid such as living room, lobby… Basically her schedule was based around cleaning and cooking. She didn't train anymore, and the promised training sessions with Itachi were obviously not going to happen.

She was starting to believe that the Akatsuki really didn't need a healer. She had no idea what was going on in the organization around her. It didn't even feel like she was part of it. She almost felt like an annoyance or a burden. Sometimes she talked to Kisame who she rather thought not very friendly, but she could hardly have lived those past two weeks without the routine 60-second conversation they had every day. They kept her from feeling completely alone despite their briefness and basically lack of decent topic. They were not even as interesting as a polite hello to some stranger in the streets. The exchange of words usually contained her stuttering voice and his mocking one. Gin found it almost depressing to think that she relied on those short conversations as if they were Christmas morning.

At this very moment, Gin was occupied with step seven in her schedule, make lunch, the next step was clean kitchen once again like she would have to do after supper. She pursed her lips disappointedly when she opened the fridge to see that the Akatsuki food supply was running low, _very _low. This fact had been troubling her mind for some time but it seemed that the problem was now too large to ignore seeing as the fridge only contained a rotten pear and a half a loaf of bread. She had used the rest of the rice and the Soya sauce the day before. She raked her brain for ideas that contained bread and pears but quickly gave up after only a couple of seconds of 'pears, bread; bread, pears," to no avail.

She now sat slumped on a chair by the table arguing with her shy mind whether or not she should ask Kisame to bring her to the nearest market place or not. After _much _more pondering she finally stood up with an air of determination and headed towards the door. She lifted her hand towards the doorknob but the door opened for her instead. She immediately paused, fearing the worst but sighed in relief when she saw Kisame standing in the doorframe. It had become one of her number one priorities to avoid a certain red-eyed man. She didn't want to be reminded of her pain.

"Why isn't lunch ready in here?" Kisame asked.

"Um, G-Gomen! T-the fo… there's… I mean! There's no food in the kitchen!" she spoke before choosing her words. "Could you maybe, please, take me to a nearby market?"

"I can't, ask Itachi, I'll be training until you get some lunch," Kisame turned around and shut the door behind him. Gin widened her eyes at this. Hesitated for a minute and turned to the fridge pulling out the pear and the loaf of bread. She then sat at the table with the two items. She gazed at them both and examined them closely.

"Pears and bread. Bread and pears…" She lifted the bread higher in one hand as if balancing the two items. "Pears _on _bread. Bread on _pears… _How about pears fried in a pan on _toasted _bread! EW! Ok then… how about… Guh!!! This is stupid!" Gin threw both food items on the table out of pure frustration and looked up. To her horror and embarrassment she saw Itachi standing plainly in the dead center of the kitchen, openly staring at her. Gin's face grew a fair shade of red. She quickly grabbed the loaf of bread and the pear, which seemed to have rolled _off _of the table to be under it. Hiding her face, she crawled under the table to fetch the pear while worried over how long he had been standing in that spot. She fumbled around the chair legs with impatient fingers until she felt the pear. She then crawled out from under the table a little too hastily because she hit her head on the corner and fell right back down. It was obvious by now that her face had tripled in color due to sheer embarrassment and pain.

She turned her face up shamefully to see a pale hand offered to her. She refused it and pulled herself up by the same corner of the table that she had hit her head on. Once she was upright and on her feet she felt a little dizzy and used a chair for balance.

"Kisame said you needed help with groceries…" Itachi stated, no trace of mocking in his voice. Despite this, Gin new that he had most likely seen her little argument earlier on.

"U-um, w-we have no more food…" She bowed her head out of embarrassment. It would have probably have made her feel more comfortable if someone had at least mentioned her stumble in such a situation. It would at least have given her a reason to laugh at herself. But Itachi just continued to stare at her and his eyes were not allowing her embarrassingly red face to cool down. "Um, c-could you take me to a nearby market?" She couldn't really picture the scene of Itachi shopping for something as innocent as groceries, it was like picturing the Akatsuki eating together.

"I'll take you out for one hour," Itachi told her.

Gin looked shocked. "Arigato!" She bowed her head in thanks, "m-may I prepare myself?"

"Yes," Itachi looked down his long nose towards her.

Gin ran to the direction of her bedroom. Finally reaching the long hallway she slowed down to a walk. Opening her door she quickly went straight to her stack of clothing and pulled out her most comfortable outfit for traveling. Feeling a twinge of guilt as she pulled on the training outfit Tsunade had given her, her first day of training; she then pulled her hair into a high ponytail so it wouldn't interfere with her eyes. Most people wore training outfits as everyday clothing so she didn't have to worry about style issues. Itachi was wearing a goddamn cloak!

When Gin arrived back to the kitchen, she found Itachi sitting at the table, a half eaten pear in his hands. Gin cringed inwardly when she thought of the rotten peace of fruit. Avoiding eye contact, she bowed her head. She heard the scrapping of chair, against floor and noticed that Itachi was now standing. "Let's go," he opened the door. Gin followed.

They headed towards the front door where Gin remembered her first day in the Akatsuki and wondered if they were going through the large stone again, she really had no idea where the Akatsuki base was geographically. For all she knew, they could have been in another dimension, but she doubted that.

The two walked past the garden and sure enough, Gin noticed that they were headed for the rock. He made the same hand signs as Deidera had but, she noticed, in reverse. Starting with the one Deidera had ended with. She guessed that was because they were exiting the place and not entering. When Itachi finished the hand signs, he hit the stone in a certain place and beaconed Gin to go through. She blushed upon eye contact and ducked her head. When she exited the dark tunnel, she found herself not in the large field that she and Deidera had landed at, but in a somewhat dark and shady dead end between two brick buildings. It was clear that she would have just come out of a brick wall to the eyes of anyone who would have been there. She pondered for a few minutes what would happen to anyone if they had seen a member of the Akatsuki climbing out of a wall. She then decided she didn't want to know as Itachi climbed out behind her.

"Follow me," he said.

Gin followed Itachi out of the dark dead end and looked around to find herself standing in an even shadier town. It was practically empty except for the odd homeless person. She did all she could to restrain from throwing money at them. It almost killed her to see the unfortunate people in their heaps of rags and dirty clothing, trying desperately to stay warm. She looked around at the burned and decrepit buildings. She saw, up ahead, what used to be a temple but was now a mass of ashes and broken bricks. It was obvious that this place had once been, probably, a quiet and peaceful town. But Gin wondered where she was going to do her grocery shopping here.

Itachi continued to walk up ahead so she chose not to ponder this thought any longer. Almost having to jog to keep up with his swift strides, she found herself tripping over a small peace of burnt building. Itachi turned around and lifted her up. Gin blushed upon contact.

"Get on my back," he ordered.

"Wha…?" she paused when her turned his back to her and crouched down as if readying himself to leap into the air. She got the point immediately and blushed even more when she wrapped her legs around his waste. She felt the wind pick up as he immediately leapt onto one of the building roofs, Gravity forcing her to grab onto his broad shoulders. Despite their position, Gin tried with all her might to distance the closeness of their bodies. She willed away the tingling in her arms when she felt his breathing on them as the two flew through the air.

Leaping from building to building, Gin could see another village in the distance over Itachi's shoulder.

"Um, I-Itachi, is that where we are headed?" she asked.

"Hn…" Gin took that as a yes and then kept her gaze on the other village before them, watching as it gradually became larger as the distance between it lessened.

When they arrived at the village finally, Gin found herself inwardly pouting at the loss of contact when Itachi placed her down. She straightened herself up and spotted a large stone on the ground. She seriously considered tripping over it in the hopes that Itachi would carry her again but wisely thought against it. She took in her surroundings and noticed this town to be the way she pictured the other one had been, small, peaceful and full of delightful innocence. She grinned at the sight of two little girls chasing a little exasperated boy while making kissy faces. She found herself chuckling to herself. Itachi was looking at her for a second but he focused his attention elsewhere when she met his gaze.

"So where are we going?" Gin found herself in a delighted mood from being in the presence of such normal people.

"Wherever you need to go," Itachi said.

"Um, OK," Gin felt a little awkward as she led Itachi through a town that he knew better than her. As they passed the busy little sales stands and the busy people, she concentrated on where she could buy her groceries. She spotted a small stand where they were selling large amounts of fish and headed in that direction. Once she was near the stand she noticed the owner was in the middle of an animated conversation with another man. The two seemed to be discussing a fight that had taken place a couple of days ago. It was obvious that they found violence a laughing matter. Not wanting to interrupt the conversation, she stood shyly with Itachi off to her left. After a couple of seconds of standing and animated conversing, the owner noticed Gin.

With a look of shock on his face, he asked Gin how he could help her. "Um, May I buy three of those and three of those?" she asked timidly, pointing to the different fish she wanted.

"Of course! That will cost you 45.00$!" he said, positively delighted at the amount of money he was making with only one customer. Gin scraped around her little pouch of money but a hand stopped her. She looked up to see Itachi paying the man. Gin would have protested if it weren't for the fact that the owner was already packing the fish.

"Um, arigato Itachi-san," Itachi looked down and nodded his head. They took off with the bagged fish and headed for a vegetable stand.

"Arigato! Come again!" the lady who owned the stand finished saying her goodbyes to her latest customer. "Welcome, how may I help you today?" Gin could tell she liked this woman; she was polite and had an overall delightful appearance.

"um, a dozen tomatoes, a turnip, a roll of lettuce, some of that celery, aaaaaand…" she examined the vegetable in front of her, "a bag of potatoes." Gin took out her money pouch before Itachi could stop her from paying; it just made her feel uncomfortable. She didn't even count her money before she took it out.

"That will be 50.00$ please," Gin gave the money but the lady refused it.

"What?"

"He already paid," the woman directed Gin towards Itachi who was now standing farther off. Gin couldn't help but feel annoyance boil her blood a little. The lady handed her the vegetable in bags. "Arigato, come again!" Gin bowed her head.

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The rest of the afternoon had gone by in the same fashion. Gin felt more like she was in a desperate race now. She didn't even bother putting her money in her pocket anymore; it was just one more inconvenience. She had never been more desperate to spend hard earned money in her life. By the time their grocery list had been crossed off she found herself out of breath. _'How much money does he have?' _she thought, exasperatedly.

"Come with me," Gin followed Itachi. He stopped in front of a large store. "Buy something," he ordered.

"W-what?" Gin found herself more confused than ever.

"Pick something out,"

Gin looked at the store and walked in uncertainly. She looked around at the beautiful dresses and jewelry. She headed straight for the racks of clothing. Her eyes couldn't take in enough of all the glamorous things in the room. She could have sworn she had actually seen a dress with real diamonds on it. She spotted the jewelry counter and walked up to it. The rings were all grand and elegant; her eyes sparkled with joy at the sight. The necklaces were brilliant though, she couldn't take her eyes off of them. She spotted one that she rather admired. It was the simplest there. Simply a silver chain with a small stone in the shape of a peach dangling from it, decorated with green stones that acted as leaves and the tiniest of diamonds to give it the extra sparkle. She didn't even favor peaches that much, it was a fine fruit but it couldn't compare it to cherries or apples. But the peach looked beautiful on the necklace. The thought of having a cherry or apple necklace just seemed tacky to her at the sight of the breathtaking jewel.

Gin noticed Itachi's presence behind her, she walked away from the counter and looked up. "I don't feel like buying anything here," she then walked out of the store. She waited outside for a few minutes but Itachi never came out. She decided to go back in to see what he was doing. At once, she spotted him at the counter with a flock of women ogling over him. But he didn't seem to be paying attention. He was buying something. Gin's eyes widened in realization. _'Please god, please no!'_ She stood helplessly behind the crowd of girls praying to god.

When Itachi emerged from the crowd, Gin had made it clear to herself that she would become an atheist. Itachi was headed towards her with the necklace in hand. He grabbed her hand and placed the peach necklace in it without a word. Gin turned an impossible shade of reddish purple. She turned to see that Itachi had left. Quickly she regained her composure and followed after. "Itachi-san!" He didn't answer he just continued to head for the edge of the village. "Itachi-san! Arigato!" She decided it was wise not to argue and that she should take the gift with gratitude. Itachi crouched as a way of telling her to climb his back and she grinned, this time hopping on without hesitation, it felt good to not care sometimes.

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On the way back to Akatsuki that day, Gin stayed completely mum. She hadn't spoken a word. Neither did Itachi who rarely spoke. It was basically the same silence as usual for the two, both being silent people. But Gin could help but have numerous emotions running through her at the moment. She couldn't help but feel a little confused, of course she was happy but at the same time confused. But she knew one thing for sure, that nothing between her and Itachi had changed, and that he hadn't bought her that necklace out of his undying love for her. The old Gin would have been naïve enough to believe that. It was obvious that, that would never be the case.

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Hey again people! This was just some random chapter really. I had to make a chapter that was more optimistic than the last. Also, kind of think of this chapter as a filler; it really has nothing to do with the plot in general. I just don't want to reach the climax of the story too early. I guess this chapter's purpose was to show you all what Gin's life has kind of molded into and the grocery idea came because, for a while now I've been wondering how long the food supplies would last. Lol, the bread/pear part was my favorite! It's just something I'd totally do! Haha XD! But yah, as it said in the story, that necklace thing was not some love thing, I just thought grocery shopping was kind of boring and I should maybe spark it up in a way. Anyways, if the romance goes through or not (I'm not telling you if they fall in love muahaha, I'm eeeeeeeevil!) it's not gonna happen that way. I'm (possibly) gonna do it another way.


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